owlsong

I was gifted two feathers that had been in a smokers home and the feathers have yellowed through time. I tried washing a practice feather with water and mild soap but the webbing would not go back together even with careful preening. Any suggestions?

Tibiki Kinew

This is a subject that I absolutely adore!!! Thank you for a great question that has a sweet answer.

Here goes, palmolive dish soap, take a palm full of it, the pull the feather from the quill end to the tip, covering it evenly with this soap. Then work it repeatedly from quill to tip, always with the grain of the individual feather sections. If there is blood or meat stuck to it like the times i pick up road side pizza, I do the very same but with a pail of water and soap on the floor. This soap will form a barrier between the feather and any grit grime or meat. Now hold the feather by the tip of the quill and hold it under a tap of warm water, let the water frun down the quill and do this until the soap is off and the water runs clear.

The next step is easy, take paper towels and lay them on a tray, lay the feathers side by side and do not touch them with anything, cover it gently with another towel and let dry overnight.

Next day take the feather and gently fluff the segments and rework the whole feather gently, again from tip of the quill down wards to the tip.

Here you can see with a wee bit of body fluff just how incredible this works, you can virtually restore a lot of feathers that you would normally ignore or replace.

Trust me on this one, I have picked up owl and hawks where others have refused to touch any part of a piza due to the grossness of the vision on the highway. I have rescued several thousand feathers from this pittyful ending and given them a long extended life. I even managed to separate the talons and save them on a lot of these poor victims!

So do not toss, wash them well with a thick soap like palmolive!!! Not a thin runny soap, that does work!!!!

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WhoMe

I wash mine in woolite and blow dry them.

The blow dryer expands the quills and makes them easy to smooth out.

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"Today, recognizing and respecting the origins of powwow aids in our Cultural Survival. If enough people break the rules because they are not satisfied...."We will have no culture."

WhoMe

sookout sh'nob

I use the same method as Kinew, but with the addition of Whome's blowdryer :)

lilbigwoman

I do the same as who me...BUT...when I'm all done cleaning and drying...I usually run an iron over my feathers. that flattens them and then allows me to straighten them out. If i'm working with plumes...put baby powder on them. I know it sounds weird, but it causes them to poof up and look 2x's their size before. Look in my gallery...you'll see all the plumes I cleaned and worked with. Big difference.

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myles

whats up lilbigwomen how are you

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Nespelem Indian

Josiah

I also use Woolite
And a Hair Straightiner
It works Great
And fluffs them back out

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ac_miss

Good to know! I've been wanting to clean my niece's plumes (they were mine), so I'll have to try the woolite special. *LOL*I can't use the baby powder though. I'm allergic!

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Bead All You Can Bead

chazziff

dont they use dish washing liquid when they wash live birds that have gone thru oil spills? so i can see where it would come in handy with washing feathers LOL. i have heard about using baby powder on plumes ... im gonna try it this next time. my girls fluffs lookin pretty shabby right now. i have used baby shampoo in a pinch at the hotel room to wash plumez n a blow dryer ... works like a charm.

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lilbigwoman

LOL...I Keep a lil'flat iron and a travel hair dryer in my pow wow suitcase so I can take care of my feathers after a ruff travel day...lmao!!! Along with my dental floss and glovers needle...which sits next to my colored duct tape!!! LMAO!!! NDN REPAIR KIT!!!

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chazziff

OH i know ennit?!? and as soon as anybody knows you got this stuff ... its can you fix this or can i borrow that?!? LOL i should start chargin jkz

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eap7

Yeah its Dawn...my mom told me to use some Dawn on some feathers because if they can use it on live birds in the commercials. I do like Tibiki Kinew said with putting them on a paper towel to dry overnight. If its a plume, use a blowdryer and it puffs up back to normal.

Question about the baby powder- does it fall off? Do you put some more on and how often? Its a cool idea. I never thought about that.

lilbigwoman

What you do with the baby powder is pour it on the plumes...then GO OUTSIDE and shake it out. While doing this the plume will get all staticy and fluff up. After you shake all the excess baby powder off, you have whiter plumes that appear to be double the size it was before. Look on myspace (MySpace.com - www.myspace.com/190745881) and I have a set that I cleaned and baby'powdered up. Actaully...they are in my gallery too...but yeah...after that, anytime you need to clean them or fluff 'em up again, you can jest put the baby powder on 'em anytime. be sure to shake 'em really good if you babypowder 'em up before you pow wow...otherwise you'll have a big 'ol white spot on your head...speaking from experience...

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WhoMe